WHAT A BUSY WEEK

It's been another busy week! In math, we are learning all about two-dimensional shapes. We are focusing on circles, squares, rectangles, and triangles. We counted the number of sides and vertices each shape has and identified real-life objects that match those shapes. In literacy, we continue to learn about short vowels.  We are also learning about digraphs - two letters that make one sound. We focused on ch, sh and th words, such as chin, shop and thumb. This is a difficult concept for students.  In science, we learned some interesting facts about elephants.  Did you know that elephants use their trunks for a multitude of tasks, including breathing, smelling, drinking, eating, bathing, hugging and even communication.  Stay tuned for more fun facts about animals as we prepare for our trip to the zoo!  

If you would like your child to eat breakfast at school, please be sure they arrive at 7:20 so they have time to eat in the cafeteria.  The past few weeks, we have had several students who buy breakfast and eat it in the classroom.  Of course, we don't want anyone to be hungry, but this is happening every day and it is a loss of instructional time.  Thank you!  

March Character Trait: RESPECT

Respect is essentially a positive way of thinking of or treating someone. It also means recognizing a person’s value and importance as a human being and treating them accordingly. Showing someone respect means you consider them as equals. Kids may already show respect in their daily actions without realizing it, such as when they:

* Say “please” and “thank you”

* Play fair

* Wait their turn

* Tidy up after themselves

* Listen to others when they are speaking

* Use their manners

*Give someone else a compliment

Taken from mentalhelthcenterkids.com/blog

Important aspects of teaching respect to kindergartners:

Empathy: Encourage children to think about how others might feel in different situations. 

Personal space: Teach children to respect others' personal space by not pushing or shoving. 

Kind words: Emphasize the importance of using kind words and phrases. 

Taking turns: Practice taking turns in activities and conversations. 

Sharing: Teach the concept of sharing toys and materials. 

SIGHT WORDS

Below are the kindergarten sight words for the entire year. We may not cover them all and we may add in some of our own.  Knowing our sight words will help your child tremendously in reading and writing. Each week we will learn two or three new words. Please review these words with your child. Students are expected to read, write and spell these words.

These are the sight words we learned this week:

this  that

These are the sight words we have previously learned:

this  that  are  saw  me  no  have  you  do  not  get  put  

look  went  he  she  said  we  did  in  and  like  can 

  play  has  it  at  go  am  to   by   my   I    see   a   the   

READING and WRITING SKILLS WE WILL LEARN in KINDERGARTEN

By the end of Kindergarten, students should be able to:

• Recognize and produce rhyming words

• Segment words in an oral sentence

• Segment words into syllables

• Segment and pronounce initial, medial and final phonemes in spoken CVC words

• Manipulate phonemes with additions or substitutions in one-syllable words

• Name all letters of the alphabet

• Write all manuscript letters in lowercase and uppercase

• Sequence letters of the alphabet

• Fluently produce sounds of consonants and short vowels when given the letter

• Fluently produce sounds for basic digraphs (wh, sh, ch, th, ck)

• Name and write corresponding letter(s) when given sounds for consonants, consonant digraphs, and short vowels

• Distinguish long and short vowel sounds within words

• Read and spell approximately 200 CVC words 

• Spell other words phonetically, drawing on knowledge of sound-letter relationships

• Read and write our sight words

• Identify and name correct punctuation at end of sentence

• Capitalize words at beginning of sentences and names of people

• Name the author and illustrator of a story and define their roles

• Explain narrative story structure including character, setting and main events

• Use a combination of drawing and dictating to narrate linked events to tell about a story in  sequence

• Re-tell key details of narrative and informational text, using pictures or prompts as a guide

• Identify characters, settings and main events in a story, with pictures or other prompts

• Describe what happened in a story when given a specific illustration

• With prompts, compare and contrast the experiences of characters in two stories

• Explain difference between narrative and informational text

• Echo-read a passage with correct phrasing and expression

• Identify and explain new meanings for familiar words and newly taught words

• Produce and expand complete sentences in shared language activities

Curriculum Objectives

Language Arts:

I can accurately form all uppercase and lowercase letters using appropriate directionality.

I can identify the beginning, middle and ending sounds of words and identify what letter makes that sound.  

I can use letter-sound relationships to decode cvc words.

I can blend phonemes into words (2-3 sounds.)

I can segment words into phonemes (2-3 phonemes.)

I can read and write our sight words. 

Math:

I can sort two-dimensional shapes into groups.

I can identify circles, triangles, rectangles and squares.

I can identify attributes of two-dimensional shapes, such as number of corners or vertices and number of edges or sides.

 I can count to at least 100 by ones and tens beginning with any given number.

 Science:

 I can observe and describe weather changes from day to day and over seasons.

Social Studies: 

I can use spatial terms to describe relative location.

I can identify the physical characteristics of a place.

I can identify landforms, such as valleys, plains, mountains, hills and islands.

I can identify bodies of water, such as oceans, lakes, ponds and rivers.

I can be a good citizen and follow the Gator Way.